From the launch ramp beneath Kanawha Falls, the scenery could not have been more spectacular. Guide Bobby Bower motored his jet boat past an old hydroelectric-power facility toward a series of several dozen mid-size waterfalls spanning the quarter-mile-wide Kanawha River. The bank-to-bank rock outcropping is a natural block to fish movement upstream, so the fish can pile up there at times, according to the West Virginia native.
“Cast to that foam line over there,” Bower suggested. I pitched my crawdad-resembling Big O crankbait to the edge of the foam. The narrow foam ribbon defined an eddy between two broad falls. The bait splashed down, and the current swept it toward our boat as I reeled it back, slowly but on a taut line.
“A little farther back where the foam lies against the boulder there,” advised the guide.
I complied and had an immediate hookup. The 2-pound smallmouth headed skyward through the bubbles. I quickly landed and released it. My wife, Rosie, connected with a smallie a few minutes later as we worked the eddies below most of the lower falls. Bobby maneuvered his jet boat
